Supreme Court senior advocate Sanjay Hegde has claimed that the number of devotees that the UP government has said to have taken the holy dip in the Maha Kumbh ‘do not add up’. Additionally, he has criticised the Hindu religious gathering as some kind of frenzy.
“These numbers do not add up. However there is no doubt that vast numbers have gone. There has been a kind of frenzy of virtue display, by all kinds of people. A brilliant job of social engineering, which will influence politics in years to come. The Ganesh Milk drinking episode, the thali banging during Covid, all show the same Indian instinct for mass action and collective affirmation. People do not want to use individual , rational judgment at all. This collective baptism by bacteria has probably settled the BJP’s line of succession”, Hegde posted on X.
Hegde responded to a media report saying that 62 crore devotees have so far taken the holy dip in the Maha Kumbh, roughly half the number of Hindus globally. He further alluded that the Maha Kumbh is some sort of social engineering used by the BJP to consolidate its political power.
